


the stars in my heaven are metal homes

by ThinkingCAPSLOCK



Category: Motorcity
Genre: Detroit Deluxe, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-09
Updated: 2012-08-09
Packaged: 2017-11-11 18:17:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/481447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThinkingCAPSLOCK/pseuds/ThinkingCAPSLOCK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Abraham (ābrəˌham);  1. Father of a multitude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the stars in my heaven are metal homes

The first time I saw Detroit, I looked up and saw opportunity. 

It has been weeks of traveling - climbing, walking, running, and fighting. We were searching for something more, something different - and we found it. A man cleaned off a slab of debris, muttering the name of the city under his breath. Much like where we came from, Detroit held none of its former glory. Just a vat of scum and dilapidation. 

Some broke down crying. They had lost hope that we could find a new life, a better life. But I didn't see just the ruined homes, the poverty. I saw so much more. 

Here was a place that had fallen down, but not apart. The more we wandered, I saw the city as it was. Full of potential. A group of unhappy strangers, holding onto the rags of their former lives. But something glinted in their eyes. Past the dirt. I saw it there. These people had a spark, one I would come to admire and, in time, detest. 

I was young then. Some might say foolish. But that didn't stop me. I introduced myself to every man, woman and child I found. I shook their hands. I told them I was going to give them back their lives. I was going to build for them their freedom. 

\- 

When I first started building, it was difficult. These people had a stubbornness to them. They didn't accept change. Not easily. I spent a lot of nights alone by the fire, drawing plans on whatever scraps of paper I had. Measuring lengths, judging distances. 

The city was surprisingly full of resources. It was as if the people had no idea what a gold mine for prosperity they sat on. I toiled away, at first alone, and then with my companions, gathering material and testing my ideas. We were often met with looks and glares. A young boy, barely a man, and his ragtag group - we certainly didn't seem like the kind of guys who could build a new life. 

But we did. We started to build robots to help with supply gathering. We made friends with talented engineers, scientists, mathematicians, architects. The city teemed with life and brilliance. Within months we had a group of hopeful assistants, working ceaselessly around the clock with us. I spent my time at the fires with men I now consider my colleagues, my employees, sorting through plan after plan. 

People smiled at us on the street. Children brought us lunches and clothes. We tinkered with scraps and dirt and grime until we found something pure and clean underneath. 

\- 

It was as we lay down the first foundation for my new city above Detroit when I realized what power was. Everyone waited for me to give the signal, the go ahead. I had emerged as both the brains and the brawn of this project. I wasn't alone in this role as leader yet. This was before Jacob's betrayal. 

I barked orders, allowing for large creative freedom but controlled application. I carved out with my bare hands the pits where we could start to build up from. I lit the spark in their souls with energy and determination. We would be free, in our new city, our new Detroit, our improved Detroit! And there we would prosper. 

I earned respect. I drew progress and hope and hard work from the slums and hollowed pits of nothing. We worked together, ate together, slaved together. For days we would rest in shifts to get paradise built. I would fill in for injured men, discipline those who stood in our way. I became a force to be reckoned with on the front. 

Behind the construction, Jacob and I planned and designed, over and over. Robots, buildings, power sources, supply buildings, transit, hospitals - and the freedom to have this all at your fingertips, within your own homes. And to be the men that create this, who start everything - that gives a lot of control. Control that I wield as power, control that, in turn, creates freedom. 

\- 

I should have known earlier that I would never be able to teach the lowlives of Detroit what freedom and prosperity was. Not all of them, and not properly. There were hints and clues I was a fool not to see. The irritation as we built. They didn't like the changes. They didn't like my progress.

We left them behind as we built up and onward. We glared as we pulled out our supplies. I wiped my hands on my shirt instead of shaking hands. The fire I had lit burned a dark colour in their eyes. 

All the respect I had mustered still led an exodus of people up to heaven with us. Jacob designed shelters for everyone. I planned layouts and the materials we needed to lift us even further upwards. We worked hard to build the city tall and proud, high above those who left us for the darkness.

-

I got married and had a beautiful child, who was blessed enough to have her first sight be the success of our first floating building.

-

The first time we had major issues with the dirt dwellers is a day I will not soon forget. They had been raiding supplies for a while, and we had done our best to build a military to handle and defend the citizens of our Detroit Deluxe. But it hadn't been enough, it seemed. Some of them slipped up to my city with that fire burning bright behind their eyes.

They kidnapped our citizens. They destroyed a building. Many were injured in the evacuations. It took Jacob and I eight months of coordination, but with the hard work of the citizens we repaired the damages caused by those hooligans.

\- 

My wife fell ill. Julie stayed by her side in the hospital we had built with the sweat of our brows and the strength of a few good men.

-

My city grew in numbers and splendor. People brought resources, they brought their lives before me and placed it in my hands. I was their idol, the public face to a city ever growing and expanding. An empire of perfection. There was no crime within our walls, no dirt, no famine. Illness was on the decline, for the most part. 

I set down rules and cast out those who rejected them. Freedom was simple, freedom was contained within the city, within the future. I created simple clothing, that fit and changed without having to be made. I had a militia, patrolling and defending against the darkness lurking just underneath. 

Freedom was the uniformality of clothes, freedom was the floating buildings and broadcasts and protection from harm. Freedom was Deluxe.

-

Jacob left one foggy morning, his resignation a scrawled note. I crumpled it in my bare hands and set about improving my city he had abandoned to the dogs.

-

Every car burning would bring a bright smile to my face. Parents brought their children to see the awful tools for so called liberation set in a heap of gas and black. A stain against their perfect freedom and perfect lives. A reminder of what I had delivered them from.

Julie never liked the shows. She yelled at me, beat my chest. But the citizens watched, glazy eyed and open mouthed, as I promised them their own freedom lay here. Sincerity and strictness were the perfect ingredients for a perfect community.

\- 

We retaliated after raids with missions of our own. We broadcasted the good news of our success for millions, and they cheered up at my smiling face. I assured them they would be alright, that Kane Co was looking after them. And I was. Each detail I oversaw, each project I had a hand in.

I had to work on this city, so that they knew my face. I was the one who had given them this freedom, who continued to see them and help them and defend them. The citizens relied on my power, my bots, my home comforts. I was no longer the foolish boy looking up at a sky with a dream. I was a grown man looking down at the fruits of hard labour. The image of hard work and determination splayed out in front of me was grand, and it was mine!

The sheer power of one man and his vision, his knowledge. I was able to create a heaven out of a hell.

-

My wife passed away. I saw Julie once at the funeral, and then again four weeks later for her birthday dinner. She was silent through the meal.

-

The spark that lit the eyes of the scum beneath me seemed to shine bright in the eyes of Mike Chilton. I should have known the moment I saw it he would leave. But I made my last mistake, hoping that it was something I could ignite. 

He listened for a while, but when his faith was tested he chose to disobey me. Me, who had built this paradise for children like him. Who had clothed him, fed him, raised him, employed him. And he fled down to the depths of hell, to the pits of darkness, and I watched from my tower as the towers lifted and he slipped right through the cracks of my city.

He returned time and again. Terrorizing my city, creating damages, scaring the children. It was tough to keep them calm. To remind the city that I was doing my best, that their fellow citizens were working to keep everyone safe. I would look out from my tower and see the holes, see the patchwork that still needed to be done. But it was a beautiful sight from my tower, of whites and blues and freedom.

The last time I saw Detroit, I looked down and saw filth.


End file.
